Directed by: TS Slaughter
Starring: Frank Holliday, Flip Jorgensen, Mike Russnak, Chris Tanner
The Gays tells the story of a family of gay men who exceed every stereotype and possible misconception possibly held about homosexuals. It is raunchy, outrageous, overly sexual, and exhausting.
The narrative style is pretty lazy. The bulk of the film is presented through flashbacks. One of the Gay sons (Yes, this family, which is made up entirely of gay men, also bears the last name “Gay,”) is talking to a man in a bar. As the man asks the son about his home life, flashbacks illustrate his stories. The question-and-answer format is frustrating, as it implies a lack of effort on the part of the writer to smuggle the exposition. Surely there’s a better way to talk about this family’s dynamic than by having an outsider ask questions like, “And how did your parents handle holidays?” and, “What about discipline?”
Still, the writing isn’t completely without merit. A few lines did make me laugh out loud. One that stands out was, "Heterosexuality is not proper dinner table conversation, son." I desperately want to add that bit of dialogue to my casual daily vernacular. Writer and director TS Slaughter clearly understands this subject well enough to write a timely and politically relevant movie.
It’s clear that this movie has an overall goal. Slaughter didn't make this for nothing. He wants to make a statement about common gay stereotypes, about how overblown and ridiculous they are, about the way that more ignorant members of society view the gay lifestyle from an outside perspective. Slaughter makes that point. Again and again and again he makes that point, until it isn’t very poignant anymore. After so much of the same joke, it isn’t funny either. It becomes exhausting and hard to get through. There isn’t much as far as plot points go either. As it progresses, The Gays feels more like a number of sketches stitched together than a feature film.
The Gays certainly has something legitimate to say, but it doesn’t need an hour to say it. Slaughter’s profane and harsh style needed more like five minutes. So while one might find it easy to respect The Gays' message and, yes, even its shameless vulgarity — It is refreshing to see a film that doesn’t shy away from male nudity — this really should have been a short film.